When the 68th annual Los Gatos Children’s Christmas/Holidays Parade steps-off on Dec. 7, all eyes will be on Grand Marshal Jim Barth, who was chosen for his contributions to the town’s youth.
Barth is the immediate past president of the Los Gatos Lions Club and led the recent revival of the Lions-affiliated Leo club at Los Gatos High School; he’s also helping launch a new club at Fisher Middle School.
More than 50 kids are active in the two clubs.
“Leo stands for leadership, experience and opportunity,” Barth said. “We’re helping to build leaders for tomorrow by teaching teens how to run a meeting, and how to plan and do a service project. They’ve been active at St Luke’s, where they’ve packaged meals for the homeless and they also did a drive for the House of Hope food pantry.”
In addition, Barth serves as the chairman of the Lions Club’s sight, hearing and diabetes committee that sends volunteers to Los Gatos elementary schools and Fisher Middle School to test students’ vision and hearing.
“We test about 1,500 pre-K, second, fifth and eighth-graders annually,” Barth said. “We have very sophisticated equipment.”
Next spring, Barth will be out and about town for White Cane Days, a Lions program that supports the San Jose-based Vista Vision Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired, as well as the Lions Eye Foundation in San Francisco.
“White cane days is an opportunity for Lions clubs to talk about vision initiatives,” Barth said. “We sit in front of grocery stores and the post office and try to raise a little bit of money for those causes.”
Barth also has a time-consuming hobby: he has a vineyard in his backyard, where he grows enough grapes to bottle 12-13 cases of Merlot and Petit Verdot annually.
“It’s a nice hobby,” he said.
Barth, who is a retired tech CFO, moved to Monte Sereno in 1981. He and his wife Dru (the 1999 parade grand marshal) have three sons.
“Beginning in the mid-80s, I coached my sons’ Little League teams,” he said. “Before that I was president of the American Youth Soccer Organization for about four years.”
Long-time friend Phil Knopf had high praise for Barth, singling out his work with the Pony League for 13-14 year olds. It’s now known as Junior Little League.
“Jim was the first person who brought stability to the Pony program when he stayed on as president even after his kids moved on,” Knopf said. “The long hours Jim’s put into the community for the last 40 years have set an exemplary example for us all, especially the town’s youth.”
Reflecting on his commitment to the community, Barth observed that “it gives us purpose in our lives and it helps us to leave the community and the world better than when we found it.”
